Hydra are tiny animals closely related to jellyfish. They are a carnivorous species that can be found in healthy freshwater rivers and streams where they attach themselves to plants and rocks.

• Watch the feeding reflex in real-time
• Observe the reproductive process of budding
• Look for similarities and differences between Brown hydra and green hydra (also available)
• Vital Stained cultures allow students to better visualize organism structures

Hydra have a sack-shaped body with a ring of tentacles around the mouth at the top. They use those tentacles, covered with paralyzing nematocysts, to trap small cruscaceans, stun them and bring them into the mouth where they are digested.